The Flyers continued spinning their wheels on Monday night,
failing again to restore their record to .500 in a 4-2 loss to the Toronto
Maple Leafs. There was an erratic pace to the action, with both sides enduring
lengthy droughts in their offensive end, and the Bullies simply suffered one
breakdown too many.

But if nothing else, at least clubhouse hits leader Zac
Rinaldo rolled out the red carpet for the return of James van Riemsdyk. [video below]

Rinaldo chased down van Riemsdyk during a 2-on-1 Toronto
break late in the second period, ramming his ex-Flyer teammate upon catching up
to the play developing at the net. The force sent JVR hurtling into the cage
violently, prompting a whistle… not to mention a few choice words from the
assailant’s victim.

If the score hadn’t been 2-0 Maple Leafs already, Rinaldo
may have wound up serving two. He got away with this one though.

Perhaps the best part of all was Rinaldo speaking to reporters
afterwards. The fact that the impressionable collision came at van Riemsdyk’s
expense seemed of no additional significance for Rinaldo. That kid just has a
target on anything that moves.

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Scott Hartnell lit the lamp for the first time in 2013,
while Jakub Voracek took over as the team leader in goals with number eight. Jake extended his point streak to six games, picking up an assist as well.

Toronto’s defense did a good job frustrating the Flyers the
rest of the time, allowing the mistakes to accumulate at the other end. Ilya
Bryzgalov surrendered a soft goal in the first period, while the Leafs caught
their opponent on a shift change in the second.

They picked up the game winner while Max Talbot sat in the
box for hooking, and an empty netter in the closing seconds was the cherry on
top.

Ugly loss for a Flyers team looking to build some momentum
now that the grueling portion of their schedule is out of the way, but nobody
said they were going to win them all from here on out. It will be back to the
drawing board on Wednesday versus the Washington Capitals.